At that point, Thor and Joss had already returned. Obviously, there weren't any other wounded left. All
the villagers had died.
"Captain, what just happened here?" Thor and Joss asked as their faces turned pale.
Rocky's eyes turned cold the moment he sensed an aura of power equivalent to that of a spirit
manipulator beyond the Earthly Stage from beneath the ground. However, Rocky was certain that it
wasn't a spirit manipulator.
"It must be a spirit-manipulated beast... It seems that a wild spirit-manipulated beast attacked the
village," Rocky said with utter certainty.
All of a sudden, sand and stones splashed with a bang in the middle of the village. Something was
about to rise from beneath the ground. The ground was trembling as the intense aura grew stronger
that it was getting hard not to notice.
"It's coming!" Rocky said as he tried to stay sharp.
Bang!
After another deafening noise, a giant figure abruptly rushed out from the ground. It incessantly flapped
its two iron wings as it produced gusts of sandstorms. The sand and stones thrown in the air almost
blocked everyone's vision.
Startled by the unexpected giant figure, Thor and Joss turned pale in an instant. Apart from them, the
spirit manipulators who were on standby out of the village were all stunned by what they just witnessed.
Rocky was the only one who remained calm.
"It must be at least a three-star wild spirit-manipulated beast at the second grade. I could sense that its
aura's definitely stronger than Uriah's. Its power is equivalent to a spirit manipulator at the fifth grade of
the Earthly Stage. I guess it must be a war beast," Rocky analyzed with his sober mind.
The giant wild spirit-manipulated beast had two heads as if it was wearing a pair of helmets. With its
body covered in black, it looked terrifyingly ferocious. It was in the shape of a big beetle with six
vigorous and forcible legs that seemed like thin pillars. Its cyan big eyes were fiercely glaring at the
three of them.
All at once, as if it was attracted by something, the wild spirit-manipulated beast roared and ran
towards them.
"You two should take the villager to the other spirit manipulators and return to the northeast military
camp as soon as possible to inform Commander Marin about the current situation here. Ask her to
send people here for support." Rocky gave orders to Thor and Joss.
"Captain, what about you? We shouldn't leave you here by yourself," Thor asked while looking at
Rocky.
"We have already disturbed it. Do you understand? I've been spotted so I have to distract it and buy as
much time as I could," Rocky replied.
"That's too dangerous!" Joss cried out.
"Spare me the lecture. That is an order. Go now!" Rocky shouted as he noticed that the armored spirit-
manipulated beast was approaching.
After glancing at each other, Thor and Joss had no other choice but to follow his orders. They carried
the injured villager to meet the spirit manipulators out of the village and headed straight to the northeast
military camp together while escorting the Three Powers at the Gehenna Border. They travelled as fast
as they could until they finally arrived.
As for Rocky who was faced with the dash of the armored spirit-manipulated beast, he rapidly retreated
with Uriah.
However, it stopped at the place where Rocky saved the wounded villager. It shook its two iron heads
and searched for something on the ground as if it was foraging.
Seeing its weird behavior, Rocky was confused. Thus, he stood there to watch the armored spirit-
manipulated beast's movements very carefully.
At that moment, the armored spirit-manipulated beast made an awful scream in excitement. It seemed
that it had found something. After that, one of its iron heads stuck out its lathy tongue to lick the ground.
Rocky fixed his eyes on the place where the armored spirit-manipulated beast licked. He noticed about
half a drop of sparkling liquid.
"The magical saliva?" Rocky was stunned. He thought back and realized that the half drop of magical
saliva was sprinkled negligently just now. The armored spirit-manipulated beast was fairly interested in
it.
After it enjoyed the half drop of the magical saliva, its cyan eyes looked around until they finally rested
on Rocky. The armored spirit-manipulated beast opened its small nostrils and roared ferociously. All of
a sudden, it flapped its two iron wings and ran towards Rocky like the wind.
Seeing that, Rocky was well aware that things were about to get pretty hot. The armored spirit-
manipulated beast must have gotten the scent of the magical saliva from him.
"Uriah, go!" Rocky called Uriah. The urgent task on hand was for him to lure the powerful armored
spirit-manipulated beast away from other people. In the sphere of the northeast military camp's
jurisdiction, once a wild spirit-manipulated beast appeared, a team of spirit manipulators would be sent
to drive it away or kill it. Therefore, instead of walking away, Rocky must wait for the support from the
northeast military camp.
Though Rocky was unwilling to exert too much effort on the situation, he couldn't stay out of it because
he had to ensure the safety of the other villages and the people living there.
Not long after, Rocky successfully enticed the armored spirit-manipulated beast to leave the village and
to a remote and desolate area.
However, the power of the armored spirit-manipulated beast was superior to that of Rocky's. Shortly
afterwards, it caught up with him. Bang! It got in the way of Rocky. It hissed at Rocky as its cyan eyes
were glued to him.
Rocky couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. It was very unfortunate that he met a more powerful
armored spirit-manipulated beast after he just had a narrow escape from the hunt of a Bear-tiger at the
Earthly Stage. This time was even worse because the armored spirit-manipulated beast's desire for the
magical saliva seemed to have been aroused.
"Howl!" Seeing that Rocky was blocked by the armored spirit-manipulated beast, Uriah immediately
stood before him and demonstrated its three-star momentum at the second grade.
The armored spirit-manipulated beast was reluctant to show its weakness so it released its forceful
power which hard pressed the momentum of Uriah. Apparently, its power was much mightier than
Uriah's.
However, Uriah was fearless. It made threatening gestures as it swung its two tails in flames. It seemed
as if the flames were dancing in the air like fireflies.
Though Uriah was a three-star spirit-manipulated beast, the evolution of its body was only at the level
of two stars. The only other kind of evolution Uriah had achieved was its own special ability, the
magical saliva.
Besides, the physique of Uriah was really special based on Rocky's evaluation. Though he hadn't
figured out all its natures, Rocky knew with certainty that Uriah's physique was quite different from
those of any other spirit-manipulated beasts. It had a potential for restoration. In addition, it could
produce the magical saliva itself which it could then use to recover in extraordinary circumstances.
On the day when Rocky fought in the Witch Palace, Uriah wouldn't have been hurt that badly if it hadn't
encountered a spirit-manipulated beast at the Heavenly Stage. Given that situation, any other ordinary
spirit-manipulated beasts would've died on the spot. That proved that the natural endowments of Uriah
were really astounding.
Thus, even when being faced by a powerful armored spirit-manipulated beast, it was still high in spirits,
which was something very hard to come by.
Seeing Uriah loyally protecting him, Rocky felt a little relieved. Surely, he wouldn't leave Uriah to fight
alone. Since Rocky once killed opponents who were at the medium level of the Heavenly Stage, he
wasn't totally afraid of the armored spirit-manipulated beast that was equivalent to a spirit manipulator
at the fifth grade of the Earthly Stage.
"Go!" Rocky shouted as he looked up at the armored spirit-manipulated beast. Instantly, the light of the
spiritual power at the first grade of the Earthly Stage twinkled around his body. With his feet pounding
on the ground, Rocky ran towards the armored spirit-manipulated beast together with Uriah.
Swiftly, yellow sand began to flutter in the air which almost blinded their eyes. A fierce battle was
impossible to be avoided.
Meanwhile, at the tent of the Commander of the northeast military camp, team leaders of five teams of
spirit manipulators reported to Marin about their performance during the escort missions.
It went without saying that all the five teams had finished their missions successfully and were able to
return to the northeast military camp earlier than expected.
Only the sixth team hadn't come back yet.
"Deputy Commander Chen, do you have any news about the sixth team and when they will return?"
Marin asked.
"I'm afraid not. In theory, they should be the first to return since their route is the shortest and safest.
Knowing this, it's definitely strange that they still haven't returned. I'm worried that they might've
encountered something unexpected," Deputy Commander Chen said anxiously.
"Commander Marin, the sixth team is composed of underperforming members. It isn't a wise decision
to assign them to escort army provisions," Evan, the team leader of the first team, pointed out
arrogantly.
Upon hearing that, the other team leaders all whispered into each other's ears. Like Evan, they all
thought that the sixth team was a bunch of useless losers.
"Evan, don't be impertinent!" Deputy Commander Chen scolded.
Marin just frowned. Though a little unhappy, she couldn't deny the truth mentioned by Evan. For the
sixth team, it was really beyond their abilities to escort army provisions successfully. However, she also
had her own considerations, especially after Rocky became the team leader of the sixth team.
To some extent, Marin acted on impulse when she decided to send the sixth team to carry out the
escort mission. Because of Rocky's cynical attitude and her curiosity towards him, she was desperate
to know more about Rocky's real power. She wanted to know what Rocky was really counting on, his
power or his luck. Therefore, the escort mission was a challenge for Rocky. If Rocky failed to live up to
her expectations, she would make other arrangements. Once anything went wrong in the sixth team,
Rocky would suffer the consequences as the leader.
At that point, a guard came in and reported, "Commander Marin, the sixth team has returned."
"Ask Rocky to report to me at once," Marin ordered upon hearing the guard's words.
"Well... Rocky isn't with them. Also, the spirit manipulators of the sixth team seem to have had a narrow
escape from something unexpected..." the guard replied as he wore a weird expression.
Hearing that, Marin immediately frowned. The other team leaders snickered. They all took pleasure in
the sixth team's trouble.
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